Insulin Potentiation Therapy: A New Approach To Treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Dr. Guyer is a holistic family physician and the Director of the Advanced Medical Center in Zionsville, Indiana, where patients are offered a unique blend of traditional and alternative therapies (incorporating a mind-body-spirit approach) for a variety of health issues, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Healthwatch(HW): Thank you, Dr. Guyer, for taking the time to provide us with information about this innovative new therapy. Can you tell us a bit about this therapy, how you have initiated this treatment approach and its overall affects?

Dr. Guyer: One of the challenges practitioners have encountered in the treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Syndrome (CFIDS/FMS) are the frequent appearance of chronic infections, which invariably come along for the ride in CFIDS sufferers. These infections are often viral or atypical bacteria, or both, and are often found to be the causative etiology of ongoing chronic illness by virtue of their ability to systematically unravel immune system function and derange the internal terrain leading to biochemical homeostasis alterations.

A common historical feature of many individuals is the flu-like illness that never went away. These patients will usually relate that they felt reasonably well until they acquired this flu-like illness and since that time they have felt achy, tired, run down, and exhausted. Sometimes secondary symptoms may be present such as sore throat, lymph node tenderness, “brain fog,” and depression.

Laboratory testing on these patients will tend to find high antibody levels to viruses such as CMV (cytomegalovirus), EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus), and HHV-6 (human herpes virus 6). This will usually be confirmed by follow-up testing utilizing PCR analysis. Secondary bacterial infections are not unusual to discover as well. They may include strains of mycoplasma, chlamydia, and streptococcus to name a few.

Generally speaking, successful treatment involves engaging a comprehensive or holistic approach to better understand the entire picture, which will lead to enhanced clinical outcomes. Paying attention to the balance of the endocrine or hormonal system, detoxifying the body of toxic heavy metals, treating chronic infections, boosting nutritional status, and correcting nutritional deficiencies will often go a long way to assisting many individuals to getting back on their feet and reestablishing their functional best.

Unfortunately, there are many patients who are not helped by the best holistic treatments or have incomplete responses. These tend to be the “tough cases” in the field of physicians, like myself, who tend to specialize in CFIDS/FMS treatment. As would be expected it can be frustrating for the patient who just wants to get back to feeling like they are experiencing a normal life.

During the last two years, we are seeing enormous success in treating these tough cases using a combination of Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) and Low Dose Foscavir (LDF). To my knowledge, this approach has not been done elsewhere as of this time. Foscavir is an intravenous antiviral medication that is FDA-approved in the treatment of herpetic viral infections.

The idea for creating this unique therapeutic approach originated from seeing a film documenting the successful treatment of polio virus using IPT by its founder, Donato Perez Garcia, M.D., and in addition, the writings and medical experience of Dr. Jean-Claude Paquette espoused in his book, Medicine of Hope: Insulin-Cellular Therapy. (You can read this book online at http://www.iptq.com/medicine_of_hope.htm). So the idea was to utilize a combination of IPT, which by itself has antiviral and anti-bacterial activity, with Low Dose Foscavir to more effectively eradicate the viruses causing CFIDS/FMS.

To date, the patients treated with this approach have been those who have been non-responders to the usual comprehensive treatments provided. Generally, we have utilized a series of 5-10 treatments depending on a patient’s severity. In our experience, most patients notice an improvement within the first couple of treatments. The typical feedback from patients is that energy levels and physical stamina increase, overall mood and happiness are improved, and flu-like symptoms of achiness, sore throat, and lethargy resolve. Also important to note is that follow-up laboratory testing to evaluate viral levels in these patients also demonstrate improvements.

HW: This is a fascinating new treatment. Could you describe its basic administration?

Dr. Guyer: Generally this treatment occurs in three stages. An important component to remember is that the concurrent administration of insulin makes every other treatment work more effectively whether it be nutritional or pharmaceutical. So generally, we have patients take a series of oral supplements and we then follow-up about 20 minutes later with a series of intramuscular injections using Kutapressin and vitamin B12. Then the patient is given a low dose of intravenous insulin, and gradually over the next 20-30 minutes the blood sugar level will drift downward. Our goal is to see that the blood sugar gets down to about the mid-20’s. At this point and time this is known in IPT circles as the “therapeutic window.” This is the timeframe when cell membrane permeability is at its maximum, and cell uptake of the active medicines will be greatest.

At that point and time we initiate the administration of the IV antiviral medicine, and then we begin a reversal process by the administration of IV glucose. Doing this provides for a fairly rapid turnaround, and within a few minutes the patient is generally feeling normal and able to eat and drink.

Generally we provide them with Gatorade to rebuild the blood sugars and a protein bar or snack to help provide additional calories. Their subjective feelings are usually the same as somebody who would for a very short-term time period experience hypoglycemia, and that is the sense of feeling sometimes lightheaded, hungry, and thirsty. This should not be confused with the historical notations of insulin coma induction often used in the 1930’s and 1940’s to treat chronic clinical depression. The patients using this modified IPT approach actually are quite conversant, alert, and oriented, and really do not report any feelings that are negative. The IV treatment with the medicine is continued for the next two hours.

On occasion, depending on a patient’s needs, we will include other adjunctive therapies such as UVB, Ozone and intravenous IV nutrient therapies with a high dose of ascorbic acid and trace minerals. The whole procedure can take anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on which medicines are administered as some of the antiviral drugs require a prolonged timeframe of administration. Generally, we would do the treatments once to twice weekly as needed.

HW: How would you determine the best patient candidates to benefit from this procedure?

Dr. Guyer: In my experience, these are often patients who have had a history of the flu-like illness I mentioned previously and subsequently complain of feeling chronically run-down, tired, physically exhausted, achy in the joints and muscles, and in general experience viral flu-like symptoms. In addition, on their laboratory analysis they tend to have high antibody levels to the viruses previously mentioned and often positive PCR analysis as well.

HW: One question that is on almost every patient’s mind when it comes to receiving treatment relates to insurance coverage. What has been the feedback on this topic?

Dr. Guyer: Since the medicine administered (Foscavir) is FDA approved, the reimbursement individuals receive is generally very good. HW

If you are interested in learning more about this treatment, visit Dr. Guyer’s website at daleguyermd.com.